Shine On
by The Starkiller
Summary: 15 year old Danny Torrance is starting high school, but isn't too excited about it. When he he meets a girl with the shining named Jade Ryder, things start to perk up. Danny's been having visions about Jade months before met her, and fears that things will end the way they had the last time Tony had visited him. Can Danny and Jade change this, or are some events fixed in time?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter I**

~1987~

"Are you excited for school?" Wendy Torrance asked her fifteen year old son as she got him breakfast.

"No," Danny replied dully. "I don't know anyone there, and it's high school, Mom. It's hell." The introduction of Jack Torrance-like words had began to surface in her son's vocabulary, but Wendy didn't object to it like she used to.

The boy was a spitting image of her husband in his facial features. He had dark widely spaced eyes, a firm chin, and light blonde hair like his mother.

"I know the move has been hard on you, doc, but try to make the best of it. Maybe you will make some friends," Wendy told him optimistically. She didn't like how solemn and quiet he was for a fifteen year old boy. But then again, Daniel Torrance had been like that most of his life, and it had only gotten worse after The Overlook experience, which had changed both of their lives.

"Maybe," Danny muttered. "Nobody liked me before, nobody ever does." Wendy said nothing as her son drank the milk from his cereal.

"You better go, I don't want you to be late for the first day of school," Wendy told him, handing him his backpack. Danny kissed her cheek, and Wendy watched her son leave for his first day of high school. "Where does the time go?" Wendy thought to herself.

Danny was trying to shake the vision Tony had shown him this morning. He had been taken to a dark, wet basement. A girl his age with curly auburn hair was tied to a chair. She seemed familiar, yet Danny knew for a fact he had never met her before. A shadow of a man was holding a gun to the back of her skull, and the familiar word 'REDRUM' appeared on the wall behind them, written in the dark red color that could only mean blood. He had gotten a huge urge to protect her, even take the life taking bullet for her, yet he could not move. He had whimpered like a child, telling Tony to take him home. Danny had snapped out of it, sitting in the chair while reading, drenched in sweat.

Danny now saw the high school he and his mother had visited last week, except it now was home to at least one thousand kids his age. He could feel eyes burning into his back._ The new kid. _Danny hated being the new kid, although it was a role he had played numerous times in his life. He took his backpack off of his back, sat down, took his book out of the bag and began to read. It had become one of his favorite pastimes.

The bell rang. Danny shut his book reluctantly and headed to his first class. The teacher had felt the need to introduce Danny as the new kid in front of the class.

"Students, I would like you to meet Danny Torrance, he is our new student from Stovington," she said. "Danny, I'll have you take a seat in front of Miss Ryder here." As Danny followed her pointed finger, he realized the girl was from the vision that Tony had shown him. This scared him more. She was more beautiful in person. Wild auburn hair, violet eyes (he swore they were), full lips and a sharp nose. She smiled at him. Danny took his things and sat down.

The teacher began talking about things Danny himself already knew, when a voice sounded in his head.

_Hi Danny._ He looked behind him at Ryder, and she grinned.

_It's nice to meet another person who shines, Miss Ryder_, Danny sent her._ I haven't met someone with the shining in 10 years._

_That's my professional name, please call me Jade, like the normal people_, Jade told him.

_If you insist, Jade_, Danny replied, and answered that yes, he was paying attention when the teacher asked.

At lunch, Danny sat by himself, and blushed furiously when he read the little note his mother had slipped into his lunchbox. 'Have a nice day, doc! Love Mom' He heard someone sit across from him, and looked up to see Jade, her wild curly hair now in a ponytail.

"You looked pathetic all by yourself, I figured I'd come and make your day," Jade explained herself.

"Ha, thanks," Danny replied, thoroughly engrossed in his book and half-listening to her.

"What're you reading?" Jade asked, pointing at his book, and asked sarcastically through the shining_ Is this food even edible?_

"This book, and no, that's why I have a cold lunch," Danny replied.

"I see," Jade chewed her food. "D'you want to hang out after school? We could go to my house if you wish." This was the first time in years that Danny had been invited to another being's house. He smiled at her.

"I would enjoy that."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

After school, they made their way to Jade Ryder's house on the other side of town after Danny had called his mother via payphone. The house was in territory he didn't know, up a steep hill.

"I'm convinced you don't even have a house," Danny panted from five feet behind Jade. She rolled her eyes.

"Of course I have a house, you dolt. It's right there!" Jade told him as she pointed at a huge white house. Danny originally hadn't deemed Jade a rich kid. She wore a ripped Metallica shirt from their second album Ride The Lightning, tight leather pants, and a lightning bolt necklace. He had figured she was more of a rebel without a cause than anything, especially with her 'fuck the world I'm the smartest person in the room' attitude. Jade was nothing like the other kids at school.

Jade tried to open the door, but the knob wouldn't budge. "Fuck!" she yelled loudly, and banged on the door. "George! AARON! Open the damn door!" _Danny, ring the doorbell repeatedly_. Danny hit the doorbell about five times per second. Finally, two identical boys with Jade's curly auburn hair and sharp nose opened the door with grins.

"Hello, little sister," one said. "Who's this?" Jade sighed, and pointed at the boys.

"Aaron and George Ryder, meet my friend Danny Torrance. Torrance, these are my jack-off twin brothers," Jade introduced. Danny waved awkwardly. Jade took Danny's hand and brought him inside.

_You better not hurt my little sister_. Danny looked at George.

_You shine too?_ Danny asked.

_Yes, we all shine except for Aaron in the Ryder family,_ George replied. _We have to speak aloud most of the time. But Jade shines brighter than all of us put together. The only person I've ever met that shines brighter than her is you. And you better not hurt her. _

_I won't_, Danny said. _I promise_.

"Want anything to drink, Danny?" Jade asked, interrupting the conversation between he and George.

"We've got juice, Coke-"

"Beer..." Aaron interrupted. Danny heard a voice he had thought he had buried deeply in his memories in his head for a minute, _Come here and take your damn medicine, you little shit!_, and then it was gone.

"Coke sounds fine," Danny replied as he developed an interest in his feet. He knew that his words sounded very tight and forced, but he'd always been shit at hiding feelings.

"The 'fridge is in the basement, come along!" Jade grabbed him by the hand and pulled him downstairs. It was the same room from his vision. 'Redrum' was written in blood on the wall facing them. Jade strolled over to the refrigerator as if nothing was there.  
_They're just like pictures in a book, doc_, Dick Hallorann's ten year old words ran through his mind. Danny closed his eyes tightly and mouthed, "12345678910!" He opened them. Now all Danny saw was a cement wall and Jade Ryder, staring at him with amusement.

"Here, Torrance." She underhand tossed him a Coke, then opened her own. They took long drinks from the cans, savoring the taste of the soda.

"Follow me, let's go to my room," Jade said as she brought him to a entirely different staircase that led to a hallway with two rooms. One had a sign that said 'Aaron and George', and the one on the left had a sign that said 'Jade'. She opened the door to that one, and he followed her inside. Danny observed the room. It was painted red and black, and there was little snippets of original poetry painted on them, and there were posters of what must be her favorite bands all over. Metallica, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, The Beatles, Van Halen, and The Who. There was a psychedelically painted Fender electric guitar leaned in the corner.

"Sweet," Danny whispered as he set down his Coke and picked up the guitar. He felt like playing something, but he didn't know what. His eye wandered to David Lee Roth on the Van Halen posted, and his fingers found themselves playing "D.O.A." Jade lit up.

"You play?" she asked ecstatically.

"Yeah," Danny replied. "I felt like a dork for reading and writing all the time so I decided to pick up another hobby."

"No one in this hole plays besides me," Jade told him. "Finally!" Danny set the guitar down carefully and read some of the poetry on the wall behind him, mouthing the words.

"City of the dead," he whispered. "How do come up with this?" Jade shrugged, and then Danny asked,

"Could you do this to my room?" She laughed.

"Easily." Jade wandered over to the window, and opened it. She set her Coke on the roof and climbed out herself. "Come on, then!" Jade told him playfully. Danny carefully repeated her actions, and sat next to her. "Don't you feel like you're on top of the world, Torrance?" Jade asked as they gazed at all of the other houses in the 'rich' part of town.

"Yeah," he whispered.

"Hit me," Jade ordered him.

"Excuse me?"

"Shine on me, hit me," she rephrased. Danny tried to think of something to say.

_HEY JADE! _he settled on. Jade was blown back so that she was laying on the roof now, and some blood started to trickle from her nose. "I'm sorry," Danny instantly apologized, feeling the same guilt he had when he had blasted Dick Hallorann all those years ago in the parking lot of The Overlook.

"No need to be sorry, Dan," Jade assured him. "It's just... Wow, holy shit."

"Hit _me_, then," Danny suggested. "I want to see how strong _you_ are."

_I DIG YOU, DANNY!_, she said. Danny lost his balance, but it was easily regained, and there was a dark black and blue bruise on his right arm. He smiled at her.

"You dig me, then?" he asked with a slightly sarcastic grin.  
"Yeah. You're the first friend I've had in at least four years," she admitted. "You didn't seem like an asshole, so I thought that it might be safe to try and talk to you. I was right."

Danny laughed, "Well, I'm glad I'm not an asshole." Jade shook her head.

"No, you aren't. So, man, what's your family like? You know mine (unfortunately)."  
Oh, the dreaded question : WHAT'S YOUR FAMILY LIKE? When they found out what happened at The Overlook, Danny always lost whatever budding friendship he had because he was too fucked up and weird. What to say?

"Just me and my mom. Dad died ten years ago," Danny answered finally.

"Oh, how did he go?" Jade asked.

"Damn," Danny muttered under his breath. "When I was five, my dad was going to be the caretaker of a hotel in Colorado called The Overlook."

"Didn't that place blow sky high?" Jade asked. Danny nodded, and continued the story.

"He was a recovering alcoholic. Anyways, we stayed up there for most of the winter, but this ain't no regular hotel. It's older than fuck, and it has... human qualities and thoughts. Evil thoughts. The Overlook knew how strong I shined, and it possessed my father by making him drink to kill my mother and I, because I insisted that I wouldn't join the hotel on my own accord. My friend (the cook at The Overlook) Dick Hallorann was in Florida, and before he left he told me to give him a great big shout if we needed him, so I did. Dick heard me just in time before Dad killed us. Dick got us out of there just before the boiler exploded. Dad was in the explosion." Jade nodded.

"I totally understand that. Dad likes booze too. How did yours hurt you?" Jade asked.

"He broke my arm when I was two. What did your dad do to you?" Danny asked, absentmindedly running his hand over the now healed arm. He was still in shock that she didn't think he was a freak yet.

"Look closer at my nose." Danny looked up at her face, and noticed her nose had been broken before. Danny shook his head.

"Some days I really think my dad was an ass, and other days I think of him as the same guy who read me stories back in Stovington and called me doc," Danny said and looked back at all of the rich houses.

"How about now?" Jade asked as she slid herself closer to him.

"The good guy," Danny admitted, and looked at her. Blood was still steadily trickling out of one nostril.

"You're still bleeding!" Jade shrugged. He wet his thumb and wiped the blood away from her face. Jade looked at him, and Damny looked at her. Her hands worked their way up his arms until they settled on his neck, and pulled him in closer.

_I have no clue what I'm doing_, Danny told her.

_That's ok, I don't either_.  
Then she kissed his lips, and Danny felt like his mind was reduced to goo. Finally, he pulled away from her and looked into her violet eyes for a moment.

"My mom's probably going to kill me for being out so late, I better go," he said. Jade nodded and got his backpack from her window and handed it to Danny. He took it and carefully climbed the pipe down to the ground.

"See you tomorrow, Danny Torrance!"


	3. Chapter 3

III.

"Did you have fun at your friend's house, doc?" Wendy asked her son one morning. He had been friends with Jade Ryder for one week, and they spent it all on her roof like the first night, talking about everything and anything. Danny's mind wandered to the kiss that he had shared with Jade Ryder, and nodded as he took a bite of toast. "What's his name?" Wendy asked.

Danny laughed, "Her name is Jade Ryder. She's a girl, and the only person who talked to me on the first day."

"Oh," his mother said, winking at him. "A lady friend." He shook his head, still laughing and blushing.

"I better get going," he said, quickly finishing breakfast and shouldering his backpack as he spoke. The walk to school seemed much longer than it was in reality. Danny wondered what he did next. He had been pondering this for most of the week, but never bringing it up to her. Was Jade his friend, or his girlfriend? Or was she neither? He was so confused.

"Hey! Torrance!" Jade yelled, waving at him. She was standing with her brothers. Danny jogged over to the three.

"Can we leave now?" Aaron asked Jade. She punched him.

"I don't care," Jade told him. "Shoo!" The two boys left, with Aaron winking at Danny, which made him blush more, and George telling him things through the shining (the gist of it was 'if you do anything to my sister, I'll rip your head off and shit down your neck'). Danny cleared his throat.

"Hey, Torrance, want to come back to my house again after school?" Jade asked. "Mom and Dad want to meet you when they get home tonight. Don't freak about it, though, they get home really late."

Danny smiled, "Sure." She looked around after she nodded to his answer, and he took in her appearance. On her was a Van Halen 1984 t-shirt that was too big (he assumed that it once had belonged to George or Aaron, and one of them was dumb and shrunk it in the drier; Probably Aaron, Danny ammended), but somehow Jade pulled it off, like she did with everything. He had only known her for a week, but he felt like he had known her for years, and perhaps that was why Danny felt so comfortable with her. Whatever it was, she really got him!

All he could do was smile at her, and wonder about his good fortune of finding a friend like her. Danny wandered through classes aimlessly, not remembering a single thing and indulging in his bad habit of reading during class (it was so easy, they always sat him in the back!). He got a good halfway through the new book he had been looking forward to reading, so all in all, it had been a productive day. At lunch, Danny glanced around at the tables; jocks, girly girls, inbetweeners (boys and girls), geeks, and then there was Danny and Jade alone at one table by themselves. Jade soon joined him with her hot lunch.

"Ever notice how everyone seems to be assigned a table?" he asked her as he made another sweep around the cafeteria.

"Yep," she replied as she bit the pizza, then commented, "Yek, this has the texture of carpet. But yeah, I noticed that awhile ago when I used to sit by myself." Jade pointed over Danny's shoulder at the girly girls, "That used to be my group." His friend didn't elaborate, so Danny didn't push it, and they simply ate lunch and switched to useless chitchat, such as books they've read, or the movies they liked, guitar techniques or trying to see what bands the other knew. Danny was surprised at himself that he didn't bring up the subject of the kiss, but he could tell from Jade's expressive eyes that she was thinking about it. That, and it was in the shining, but sometimes Danny chose to ignore the shining and just be a normal human. Without another word said, they both sulked off to their respective classes; since Danny was advanced in English, they had a different class.

Though he was advanced, Danny knew most of the things that they were teaching and completed his work with ease. Unfortunately, he couldn't help turning the heads of some of the older kids in his class, another thing he had wanted to avoid. At all costs, Danny wanted to be the Invisible Boy and avoid all of the new kid shit that he was bound to receive.

"Hey New Kid, how do you finish your work so fast?" the girl that sat in front of him asked.

"My name isn't New Kid, it's Danny Torrance," Danny corrected her. "And second off, I'm advanced for a reason, aren't I?" She raised an eyebrow at him in the way that snotty rich girls do, and turned around to gossip about him and his straightforwardness. Dispite this, he was sure that he heard the fact that he was 'cute' mentioned once or twice; her blonde friend called 'dibs' on him. Danny shook his head and went back to the horror novel he had been reading, mentally laughing at them. On the walk to Jade's house from school, he told her about this. Jade knew exactly who he was talking about.

"That's Becca, Hannah, and Kathy," Jade explained. "Steer clear off them, Danny. They take turns dating the new guys. They're bitches." Danny nodded, having inferred most of the things his friend was telling him. He also noticed that she was calling him by his first name, instead of just calling him Torrance.

"That's ok, I'm not really the blonde-blue-eyes-pop-music-shit type of guy anyways," Danny replied wryly. Jade smiled at him.

"Man, if only I had a quarter for how many boyfriends Becca has had in her life since seventh grade, I'd have a shit ton of quarters," Jade mused only half-jokingly. Predicting that Aaron and George would lock them out again, the two entered the house through the back door. Aaron, George, a man, and a woman were waiting for them.

"Hey, Jade, look," Aaron said with a little smirk playing at his lips. "Mom and Dad are home early." George looked less pleased but still had a look of amusement at his younger sister's shock. Their dad stepped forward and offered Danny his hand.

"Hello, I'm Will Ryder," her dad introduced himself. He gripped Danny's hand in a tight handshake that hurt a little bit. Mr Ryder smiled a grin that was like poison. Danny could tell that Jade's father already strongly disliked him.

"I'm Danny Torrance, pleased to meet you," Danny told him pleasantly. Mrs Ryder put a hand on her husband's shoulder, letting him know that it was her turn to greet the guest. She seemed much nicer than her husband.

"Hello, Danny," she said. "I'm Iris. Jade hasn't brought anybody home in such a long time, so when Aaron told us that Jade had a new friend, we just had to meet you. We were wondering if you would do us the honor of staying for dinner." Jade looked at Aaron with pure hate and loathing in her eyes. Even though he couldn't shine, she was still sending hateful messages to him. Mrs Ryder ignored her daughter's thoughts and smiled at Danny, and Danny smiled back at her, because he could tell that her smile was genuine.

"Oh, I'd love to Mrs Ryder, but I have to housesit tonight because my mom has to work double shifts," Danny apologized. She smiled again at him before stepping back.

"Well, Danny and I are going to go to my room now," Jade interrupted the awkward exchange.

"I want to talk to Danny in my office first," Mr Ryder said, moreso to Danny than his daughter. Alone, Mr Ryder added in the shining. Danny nodded and followed his down the hallway. When they were inside the office, which was void of any sort of personality, Mr Ryder gestured for Danny to sit down in a chair, which he did. Jade's father followed suit and looked at Danny for a long time.

"Sir?" Danny said.

"Yes," Mr Ryder shook himself from whatever he had been looking for in Danny's face. "Mr Torrance, do you have any romantic interest in my daughter?" Danny didn't know how to answer. His mind was replaying movies that had happened in the past week.

"I," Danny started, paused for a second more of consideration, then continued, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Mr Ryder asked. "My daughter is a very special girl. She doesn't deserve guessers."

"Well, yes, I do like her. A lot," Danny clarified. "I just don't know if she likes me back."

"I see. You shine. Much stronger than me. Why don't you just find out in the shining if she likes you?" Mr Ryder suggested. Now it almost sounded as if he was trying to help Danny.

"I used to do that when I was little, but I don't anymore. I consider it an invasion of someone's privacy," Danny explained. "I just hope that Jade sees it the same way that I do."

"Treat her well," her father said to him. "I love my daughter very much, and I'd hate to see her in any pain." Later, this statment would make Danny laugh bitterly. At the time, Danny believed he meant it genuinely. "You can go now." Danny left in a hurry.

"How bad was it?" Jade asked him in a groan when her friend joined her on the roof.

"Awkward," Danny decided. "At first I thought he wanted to rip my head off, but then it was almost as if he was on my side."

"Father!" she groaned again. They sat and looked at each other for a moment, the only thing filling the silence was the radio perched on the window behind them. Suck it up, Danny thought to himself. If you don't say it, it likely won't be said, and you'll just be torturing yourself for the rest of your life.

"Listen, Ryder," Danny said. "What're we doing here? You kissed me on the first day I even knew you and now we're acting like it never happened. Maybe I'm just overanylizing it again, and if I am, just tell me to shut-" Jade cut him off by kissing him.

"I know, I know. Believe me, Torrance, I know," Jade said. "I did feel something there, and I still do. You're the first friend I've had in a long time, and I didn't want to fuck that up. But I just feel this pull, you know? It's as if I've known you for my entire life. I dunno, maybe I'm just a pussy, but that's how I feel." Danny was once again silent. She had said everything he had been thinking. How did he follow that up?

"Well, I guess we're just a couple of pussies, then," he said. She grinned, and scooted closer to him.

"Danny, I'd be your girl if you asked me to," Jade hinted.

_Go for it, Torrance, you pussy_, George said to him through the shining.

_Oh, so now you're on my side?_ Danny asked George sarcastically.

_I never wasn't on your side, Torrance. I just love my little sister very much, and I don't want to see her hurt, because I've seen that before. But I also want her to be happy, and you're going to make her happy, Torrance._

_Ok, Ryder. I promise. _

"Ryder, would you be my girl?" Danny asked. Jade rolled her eyes and looked up at him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I will," she answered, then pointed behind her at her room. "Be a dear and put some CCR on that record player over there. I'm tired of the radio's shit."

"'And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anaesthetise the way that you feel'," Danny quoted the Elvis Costello song as he searched through her bin of records. "Which do you fancy?" he asked his newly found girlfriend.

"Cosmo's Factory," Jade replied. Danny obliged and put the record on the player. He joined her again as the beginning of "Ramble Tamble" played. "Well, isn't this fuckin' romantic?" she asked. Danny laughed, and they were quiet again for a moment.

"Jade, why don't you have more friends?" he asked her. "You're such a cool person, it's a shame more people don't like you." Strangely, Jade chose to tell him through the shining. She had been speaking aloud to him most of the day, so this was a strange occurrence.

_I did, until the summer in between seventh and eighth grade. I didn't see any of them for the whole summer because they were all on vacations that we couldn't afford. I hit a really huge growth spurt that summer, and by the time we got back to school I was... different than them. Taller, wider, bigger. _

_Lean, mean, and not too far inbetween neither?_ Danny asked, hoping she'd get the Caddyshack joke and not think he was one of those guys.

_A little monkey-woman_, she replied, letting him know she got it. _So, anyways, since I was different than they were, they shunned me and called me a freak, and none of the other cliques wanted me, because no one wants a freak. Not even the freaks wanted a freak. Until you came, that is. _

_Ha, thanks_, Danny replied sarcastically. She nudged him.

_You know what I mean._

_Yeah, I do. You're the first person who's not freaked out on me when they heard about The Overlook. That's about ten years without friends any friends. _  
_I guess you were right: we're just a couple of pussies_, Jade said as she laughed.

_Nothing wrong with that_, he replied.

_**I know, I know. Not a lot of Shining-horror goodness. "Just another gross romance fic, Starkiller! Shame!" you say. Just you all wait! I just have to make everything seem all hunky dory before things get going. I have a sneaking little feeling that Tony might make a surprise visit next chapter... ;) All I ask is that you be patient. I'll try to have the next chapter out faster than this one was. My apologies for that. See you all next time!**_

_**-Starkiller**_


	4. Chapter 4

_Heere's chapter four! Also, if you look back, you'll see that I've changed my mistake from "1985" to "1987". Therefore, this chapter is possible! _

_PS, Redrum...Redrum..._

Chapter IV

"Doc, the phone's for you," Wendy called to her son after speaking to an enthusiastic Jade Ryder, who she had met a few days previous. She was a nice girl, and for the most part Wendy felt that she was good for her son.

Danny trudged tiredly into the kitchen, "It's seven in the morning on a Saturday!" Wendy shrugged and handed him the phone. "Hello?" he answered after stiffling a yawn.

"Hey, Torrance!" Jade said, strangely awake at the ungodly hour.

"Jade, get on with it. It's seven in the morning," Danny said through his teeth. He enjoyed his sleep on the weekends; he enjoyed it very much, and whoever ruins that sleep is bound to lose a toe.

"Guess who's got two thumbs and tickets to see Guns N' Roses tonight, front row?" she asked him. Danny could hear her uncontrolable grin over the phone. He instantly perked up.

"Jade Ryder?" he guessed.

"Righto!"

"How in the hell did you get tickets to GNR?" he asked, miffed. Ever since _Appetite For Destruction_ had come out, Jade and Danny had both had been mad for Guns N' Roses, but the band wasn't in the area a lot, and they sold out faster than lightspeed.

"Well, technically they aren't _my_ tickets," Jade clarified. "Aaron won them in a radio contest, and there were four tickets. One for himself, one for George, one for me, and they told me to bring you."

"Why didn't they ask Pete and RePete?" Danny asked again; Pete and RePete were George and Aaron's two best friends, both coincedentally having the first name of Peter, thus earning their nicknames.

"Both busy. Besides, you aren't so horrible. They sort of like you," Jade said."Do you wanna come, or do I have to go to the best concert ever by myself?"

Danny covered the end of the phone so he could speak to his mother.

"Mom, may I go with Jade and her brothers to a concert tonight?" he asked.

"Who's concert?"

"That one band I like, Guns N' Roses," Danny answered. "Please?"

"I suppose so, just don't get into any trouble," Wendy said. "I'm not stupid, I know what type of band they are."

Her son grinned, "Thanks, Mom."

It took most of the rest of the day for Danny to convince himself that he was going to a Guns N' Roses concert. _Guns N' Roses_! This was something that he had only dreamed of as he listened to _Appetite For Destruction_ over and over. Seldom had he thought of a band so much, and listened to only one album over and over, sometimes long into the night (usually these listening sessions ended with Wendy yelling at her son to turn the damn thing off as Slash got into a particularly nice solo).

_Excited at all?_ Jade asked through the shining. He could hear her smirk.

_Duh..._ Danny replied sarcastically.

The Ryder siblings arrived at his house in Aaron's truck, which he had spent almost a full summer fixing up just so he could say he owned the town's only T-Bird ("The thing's a piece of shit, really," Jade had told him. "Aaron's too prideful to admit it or even to notice it; that car is precious to him"), at seven, though the band didn't go on stage until nine, as stated by "Mr. Brownstone".

"Mom! I'm leaving!"

"Have a good time! If anyone offers you anything, just say no!"

"_Mom_!"

On the way there, the friends debated their favorite member of the band. Jade liked Axl Rose, Danny liked Slash, George liked Izzy Stradlin, and Aaron had a case going for Steven Adler.

"Drummers are so underrated!" he argued. "The songs would suck without Adler's drumming!"

"Sure, but a song without drums can hold itself up, and a song without guitars sucks," Danny replied.

Aaron didn't have a response to that, so they played "The Song Game", a game invented by George and Jade. Someone sings a line to a song, and if possible, someone jumps in with another song that begins with the last word sung of the previous song. Danny had to sing a version of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" because it was all he could think of, which won him the game because all of the other competitors were too busy laughing at his impression to think of a song.

"This is it, guys," Aaron said as they pulled in.

Jade, Danny, George, and Aaron waited in line for what seemed an eternity to four teenagers, but finally, they were in.

Guns N' Roses were almost better live than they were on record, in Danny's opinion. They opened with "Welcome to the Jungle", then played "Mr. Brownstone", then "Rocket Queen", and did covers of Wing's "Live and Let Die" and Aerosmith's "Mama Kin" (both of which the band would eventially put on record. Jade was singing them all to him, except changing them to fit.

"Here I am, and I'm a rocket queen. I might be a little young, but honey, I ain't naive!"

"Here I am, and you're a rocket queen, oh yeah! I might be a little much, but honey, you're a bit obscene!" Danny sang back to her.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and Guns N' Roses was no exception. They all piled in the car, still talking excitedly about the concert. Danny was avidly engaged in that conversation, until he began to see things again.

_He was back in the basement again, Jade tied to the chair, just like she had been in all of the other visions, except those were better because it was about some stranger, not the girl he loved.  
_

_"Please don't," she whimpered. Tears were running down her face. "I didn't do it, I swear I didn't-"  
_

_"BE QUIET, OTHERWISE YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF EATING LEAD!" The voice sounded familiar, but Danny just couldn't lay his finger on where he had heard it before.  
_

_"Jade!" Danny heard himself scream, but she didn't react to him.  
_

_Faintly, he could see Tony, a shadow in the background.  
_

_"Danny, do you understand what I'm showing you?" he asked.  
_

_Danny looked back at the scene, and something had changed since Tony had spoke. Jade was now hanging limply against her restraints, and the word "REDRUM" was on the wall in blood. Her blood. His girlfriend's blood. Jade's blood.  
_

_"Tony, get me out of here," Danny whimpered. He was sobbing. "No more. Please get me out of here. Tony!"_

"Danny!" Jade shook him.

Danny jumped. She was alive, there was color in her face, oh thank _God_ she was alive!

"Are you alright?" she asked urgently. "You were fine, but then you stopped

talking, and your eyes rolled back in your head and you were moaning 'Tony, Tony' over and over-"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered quickly.

Danny wasn't fine, though. Far from it.


	5. Chapter 5

V.

That night, they slept at the Ryders' house, because it was well past twelve when they got back in town. Despite promising his mother that he wouldn't sleep near Jade, Danny snuggled into her covers, absentmindedly draping an arm over her side. He didn't think about it, it just felt _right_.

"Night, Torrance," she murmured.

"More like morning, isn't it?" Danny quipped.

"Does it appear that I give a fuck?" she asked him irritably.

"Not really, no."

"Then just tell me goodnight, give me a kiss, then shut up so I can sleep," Jade ordered. "I have to sneek you into George's room before the 'rents find out. They'll think we fucked or something."

"Goodnight, Ryder," Danny told her as he propped himself up on one elbow to kiss her cheek. "And I'm not suggesting anything, but I just wanted to comment that if your parents weren't too keen on you screwing before you're married, they probably shouldn't have gotten you a king sized bed."

"That's not shutting up, Torrance."

"I'm shutting up now."

Danny did as he was told, and he fell asleep almost as soon as he shut his eyes. He had a pleasent sleep. At the beginning, anyway.

_Danny and Jade were driving in the city (his birthday was in two months, it was possible). It was the spring, a pleasent change from what the season was in realtime-a halfling between autumn and winter. They were in his mother's truck, and Jade opened up the sun roof and stood up. He looked at the pair of legs that remained, and emitted a laugh, which started as a low chuckle and slowly evolved into a full out hardy laugh, which reminded Danny all too much of his father's laugh. _

_"WOOOHOOO!" Jade yelled. A glance at his driver's side rearview mirror showed Jade standing with a huge grin on her face, her arms spread as if she were a bird. _

_"Get back in here," Danny yelled out the window. "We're almost in the city limits, and my mom'll ki-be super pissed if I get a ticket." He had stopped himself from saying "kill me", because that had been his father's job. _

_"Killjoy," she verbally jabbed him in that joking tone of hers. _

_"Not to dull your buzz anymore, but I have to bring you back home soon," Danny said. _

_"Dammit." _

_"Not my fault," Danny said. "We're lucky that your dad even let you get into a car with me tonight, I don't want to push it by having you home late." _

_Jade didn't answer, and put in Danny's "1984" cassette tape-one afternoon she had come over to the Torrrances' house and color coded all of the tapes-green for Danny's tapes and pink for Wendy's. They only got as far as the beginning of "Panama" when they hit the city limits. Danny's right hand was not on the wheel, and as a result the fingers instinctively plucked at the strings of an invisible Statocaster. _

_The red light flashed as soon as they got close enough to pass it, and Danny cursed. He glanced at his rearview as he waited for the light to turn back. _

_In the mirror was the silhouette of Tony, the areas by him dark and cloudy in contrast to the deep blue spring sky._

Danny jumped up with a short scream, the sheets clinging to his chest with sweat. He hyperventilated for a minute or two before Jade was jolted out of her sleep as well. She began to rub his back and take long, slow breaths in an attempt to get Danny to calm down.

"Easy, Dan," she whispered, her calming hand caressing his bare back. "That's right, just breath." He eventually got his breathing under control, and a soon as he was breathing normal, Danny pulled Jade into a tight hug. "Woah, Danny," she said. "You're crushing me!" Danny noticed how tightly he had her in his grasp and cut her some slack. "That's better-now, do you want to tell me about this? The fact that you blanked out in the car and just had a nightmare is too much of a coincedence for me to ignore."

"Jade, don't ever leave me," he whispered.

"I won't," she promised. "But right now, you're starting to frighten me."

Danny took in a deep breath, "Ok, fine. I've been having visions."

She nodded, a knowing look using her face as a host. "What about?"

Danny looked up at her, fear and pain filling his voice as he spoke, "You." Jade was quiet for a moment, not knowing what to say, so Danny continued his mad rambling, "Each time, Tony talks to me, and he keeps saying, 'Do you understand?'. No, I don't, Tony, thank you very mu-"

"Who's Tony?" she asked softly.

"You know how something happens before you go into a vision?" he asked. She nodded. "Some people smell a certain scent, or something appears-but I see Tony. He's a version of me." Jade didn't question the last sentence; she could tell that he was shaken, and she shouldn't probe too deeply on one subject, but instead quickly jump from one to another.

"What happens to me?" she asked quietly.

"You-Each time, you're tortured in your basement by some faceless evildoer. You're straped to one of the kitchen chairs, and you keep whimpering, asking me to help as you sob, but I can't. I can't move or talk or anything. Tony's always standing in the corner, and he asks, 'Do you understand what I'm showing you, Danny?' And-and then, they shoot you, and you're dead, and they write "REDRUM" on the wall in your blood. Each time, the vision gets clearer and clearer-"

"How long have you had these visions?" Jade interrupted, forgetting self control for a moment or two.

"Maybe six months or so before I met you, I had the first one."

"That's why you looked so freaked when you saw me that day in Richardson's class," she murmured, then took Danny's chin in her hand and turned his head, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "I'm _not_ going to die, Danny. I promise you."

"The last time I had a vision like this, it came true," Danny said, turning into a five year old boy in a fifteen year old kid's body before her eyes.

"This one won't," she urged. "I promise you."

But Danny wasn't so sure.


	6. Chapter 6

_Am I updating this story? I think so! I'm sorry for the wait, but writing this chapter was so bleeding slow. I hope you like it, even though I don't. _

_Shine on, you all :)_

_-Starkiller_

VI.

After telling Jade the truth about his visions, Danny went for months without having another dream vision, and he began to feel normal again. It was bizzare. That's not how it had worked last time; the visions are supposed to haunt you until you can think of nothing else. But they had almost left him completely. Danny would always have that mental image of Jade's lifeless body in his memory for as long as he lived. But for now, they were gone, and he tried his hardest to be a normal teenager in the meantime.

Danny had just passed his driver's test, so he decided to call Jade and boast.

"Hello?" her voice answered.

"Who's got two thumbs and just got his driver's license?" Danny asked her with a grin.

"Daniel Torrance?" Jade guessed.

"Yep! And I've decided I'm taking you out tonight," he said.

"Where?"

"Just to the mall, nothing special. I admit that it's mostly because I'm rubbish at buying presents, so I'm just going to have you pick something out there, and I'll buy it for you," Danny admitted.

"Don't worry about it, I'll do the same thing," Jade said.

"I'll pick you up in a few," he told her.

"Ok. See you then."

"Bye."

Danny hung up the phone and went to his mother's bedroom, where she was playing records while reading a book. He knocked on the door.

"Mom?"

"Come in."

Danny opened the door, "Hey Mom, can I borrow the car tonight? I want to go to the mall with Jade."

Wendy sighed, "When did we both get so old?" Danny cracked a grin, and she continued, "Yes, the keys are on the counter. Try to be home by ten, but my absolute latest is eleven."

Danny crossed the room to kiss his mother on the cheek, "Thanks, Mom."

"Drive safe!" Wendy called after him as he left the room.

"Yes, Mom!" Danny called as he swiped the keys off of the counter and headed outside to the truck.

Danny absentmindedly looked at the scenery as the neighborhoods slowly transitioned from the poor side of town to the rich side. He turned into the driveway of Jade's white house, which pretty much fit Ferris Bueller's description of his friend Cameron's house: it was like a museum.

Being the gentleman he was, Danny got out of the truck to get Jade. As Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part. Finally, Jade's mother answered the door, and called her daughter down from her room.

"Be home by ten!" Danny could hear Mr Ryder yell from his office.

"Have fun, you two," Mrs Ryder told them with a smile.

They got into the truck, and they were off. Jade looked at him and smiled.

"Our families are letting us go to the big city alone? What type of alternate universe is this?"

Danny laughed, "I don't know, but I think I like it."

When they arrived at the mall, Danny was a gentleman again and opened the door for Jade. She stepped out, looked at him, and burst out into laughter.

"What?" Danny asked, putting his hands on his hips in an impersonation of a girl.

"I was just thinking about how you were being a gentleman, then I imagined you dressed as a gentleman, with a top hat and a monocle and a cigar-you looked so absurd!" Jade told him between giggles.

He grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the entrance while she died of laughter, "Come on, Comedy Wizard. Let's go."

They walked around window shopping for their own Christmas presents for a while, when they realized that it wasn't as hard as they thought to buy presents and that they had found something for the other before the other had. Danny bought Jade a necklace with a black guitar pick on it, and Jade bought Danny _The "Chirping" Crickets_ by Buddy Holly & The Crickets.

They handed each other the shopping bags, "Merry Christmas!"

Danny wished that was how you get all Christmas presents.

He kissed his girlfriend, "Thanks. This'll probably be all that I listen to for the next month."

"I probably won't take this necklace off."

As they acted like obnoxious kids throughout the mall, Danny laughed and realized how much his life had turned around in the last few months. He had gone from being this quiet, bookish kid with no friends to an outspoken, funny guy who has a _girlfriend_. Danny had never thought he would have a girlfriend.

He was vaguely aware of Jade taking his hand.

"Done being obnoxious?" he asked her with a grin.

"Never. I spotted a photo booth, and we're taking pictures whether you like it or not," she pointed.

The first picture was a nice picture with them smiling, because they both knew that the next four pictures were going to be utter madness. For the second picture, Jade had pulled him to his feet so the camera took a picture of their torsos. They sat down for the third picture with their eyes closed and their tongues out. The fourth picture was another "nice" picture, with Jade's head on Danny's shoulder. The fifth picture was Danny's favorite, though; that was the picture where they kissed.

"All in all, I think it was a good photo shoot," Jade said as she reviewed her copy of the photo strip.

"It was the best," Danny agreed. He glanced at his watch and noticed that it was eleven thirty. "Oh shit," he cursed. Jade was supposed to be home by ten.

"What?" Jade asked.

"We're late."

Their eyes made contact for five brief seconds before they soundlessly agreed to haul ass to the parking lot. Danny cursed his stupidity and drove a little over the speed limit than he should have; sixteen, and already developing his father's leadfoot. Jade, however, didn't seem too concerned and was busy selecting a tape for them to listen to, finally landing on a mixtape that she herself had made for Danny. The first song was "Alison" by Elvis Costello, and Jade sang the first verse with Elvis Costello.

Danny looked at her, "How can you be so nonchalant? We're driving to our deaths here!"

Jade elbowed him, "Sing with me!"

He sighed, giving himself over to the music.

_Alison  
I know this world is killing you  
Alison  
My aim is true  
My aim is true_

The truck pulled into Jade's driveway. The lights were still on, much to their horror.

"Do you want me to go in with you?"

"No. I wish to prolong your life as long as possible," Jade said. She leaned over and kissed him. "Thanks for tonight." Danny watched her walk to her door.

"You're welcome," he said to no one as he pulled out of the driveway.


End file.
